Bob Dylan enthusiasts and novices alike were offered a unique opportunity to study the songs by the recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature. The writing course, "Visions of Dylan", was taught by Anthony DeCurtis at Kelly Writers House in the spring of 2017. DeCurtis is a distinguished lecturer in the Department of English and has been a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine for almost 30 years. In addition to writing criticism, students were encouraged to present their own creative work based on their study of Dylan. Presentations ranged in style and disciplines and included original songs (folk and hip-hop); a literature review of Dylan's book of experimental pose poetry, Tarantula; a computer algorithm that produced Dylan songs; and an art critique of Dylan's paintings and album covers.
DeCurtis has been a lecturer at Penn since 2002 and described the class as, "the most exciting teaching experience I've ever had."
